In the myths and legends of the mainland, Nuwa and Fuxi were originally brothers and sisters, and for the inheritance of mankind, the two people married each other. Of course, the two also know that the marriage of brothers and sisters will be criticized, so before they join, the two burn smoke to ask the sky, if the smoke is in one place, it is the same as the two people in heaven. Sure enough, the two sisters lit a pile of grass, and the smoke would merge into one, so the two were together, and they were not criticized because of the brother-sister union.
But in fact, such a brother-sister union is also limited to legends, in ancient times on the mainland, whether it is the combination of brothers and sisters, or the son and stepfather and wife, etc., will be criticized by people, such a thing in the eyes of the people, is against the ethics of the unethical behavior, even if the emperor does such a thing, will be spurned by the people. However, Egypt, which is also one of the four ancient civilizations, regards such incest acts as commonplace, and even many pharaohs in ancient Egypt chose to marry their daughters.
An Egyptian pharaoh who honors the marriage of close relatives
In Egyptian myths and legends, the supreme god they worshipped was the sun god, and the pharaohs of ancient Egypt were the sons of the sun god, in addition to "giving birth" to the Egyptian pharaohs, the sun gods also gave birth to other Egyptian gods, and the mother of these gods was the sister of the sun god.
Perhaps it is precisely because of such myths and legends that ancient Egypt was very fond of the marriage of close relatives, in fact, the pharaohs of ancient Egypt were mostly the product of the marriage of close relatives, and they will continue this tradition. For example, Pharaoh Akhenaton of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt married his third daughter, Ankhenamon, to the queen, and as an adult, she married her brother Tutankhamun, and after Tutankhamun's death, she married her grandfather Ayi. But in fact, Tutankhamun was not an Ankhenamon's first husband, and her first marriage was to her father.
Why did it not cause much trouble in ancient Egypt, and even some Egyptian pharaohs who married their daughters eventually had children with their own daughters?
The first pharaoh to marry a daughter
According to the historical records that can be found so far, in the history of ancient Egypt, the first Egyptian pharaoh to marry a daughter was Pharaoh Akalia, who not only married his daughter Attana, but also gave birth to a son. In fact, prior to this, the marriage of the ancient Egyptian royal family, although chaotic, there was no record of the marriage of father and daughter. So, how did this thing develop?
According to the records, Akalia was a cruel person, addicted to war and obsessed with female color, and there was no lower limit in female color. After Akalia married, he gave birth to his daughter Attana with his wife. When Attana was three years old, in order to compete for control of the Red Sea region, Akalia, as a pharaoh, personally led the army. What people did not expect was that the war lasted for more than ten years, and the anxiety of the war made Akalia not see his wife and daughter for more than ten years. During this period, Attana also grew from a cute and well-behaved child to a beautiful girl.
The war was finally over, and Acalia won the war, but the enemy, enraged, took Akalia's daughter captive. Furious, Acalia again sent a large army to make peace with the enemy and offer beautiful women.
Obsessed with the female color, Akalia was naturally very happy, and was fascinated at a glance, and immediately had a fish and water affair with this beautiful woman.
But when Akalia remembered his purpose and asked the enemy for his daughter, the enemy envoys said that they had returned Attana, the beautiful woman who had been sacrificed.
Although Akalia was horrified, the wood was already in a boat, and there seemed to be no good remedy, so Akalia made a mistake and simply married Attana, and the next year, their son was born.
After all, Acalia would marry her daughter because of the misunderstanding caused by the war, and the marriage of close relatives was also a long-standing custom in ancient Egypt, and the pharaoh, as the spokesman of the sun god in the human world, had absolute authority, and the people did not talk too much about such things.
However, everything is only afraid of the beginning, and with this precedent, it seems that the marriage of daughters by pharaohs in ancient Egypt seems to have become the norm.
Why would Pharaoh marry his own daughter?
In ancient Egypt, it was not uncommon for pharaohs to marry daughters, and it is obvious that it cannot be said that all pharaohs were deceived by beauty and would marry their daughters under the wrong circumstances. So why did ancient Egypt do this happen so often?
In fact, just by looking at the behavior of the royal families of European countries in history, you can guess one or two. In Europe, it is very common for brothers and sisters to marry, queens to marry uncles, etc., and in their view, such acts are not incest, but for the purity of their own blood.
The ancient Egyptians thought the same thing, in their view, the marriage of blood relatives, the marriage of sisters to brothers, the marriage of grandfathers to granddaughters, and even the marriage of fathers and daughters were not unethical things, but to maintain the purity of blood, but also to maintain their own divinity.
Of course, some pharaohs did this in order to consolidate their position and maintain their legitimacy, for example, some people speculate that Ankhenamon's grandfather married her because he coveted the pharaoh's position.
Why are there so many differences between Chinese and ancient Egyptian views on blood marriage?
In China, there was a long tradition of not marrying with the same surname, and in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the rulers explicitly forbade blood relatives to marry. Although marriages in ancient China also had close relatives married, most of them were marriages between aunts and cousins, and even if they were considered close relatives, the restrictions were relatively large. Although the empress of the Han Hui Emperor of the Han Dynasty was said to be her niece, the reason why Zhang Yan became an empress was mainly because Empress Lü forced her to consolidate her power and position, which was not what Emperor Hui of Han wanted, and more importantly, Zhang Yan was also a famous virgin empress in history, and he and Emperor Hui of Han only had the name of husband and wife, but there was no fact of husband and wife.
In ancient Egypt, the pharaohs who married their daughters, the marriage between them was not only formal, many pharaohs also had children with their daughters, why is there such a difference?
First of all, China has the constraints of traditional culture, while ancient Egypt does not have the constraints of corresponding culture. In China, the ancients realized the disadvantages of close relatives marriage very early, according to the records that can be found, at the beginning of the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty at the latest, people have realized the harm of marriage between close relatives, so they have set up a system of not marrying with the same surname; in addition, in the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucian culture was formed, and people gradually understood the ethics and morality of being a person, and naturally they would not do such a thing.
Second, the difference between public opinion pressure. Ancient Egypt worshipped and superstitiously believed in the pharaohs, they were a combination of kingship and theocracy, and had supreme authority in ancient Egypt, and the ancient Egyptian people naturally did not have much doubt about the marriage of the pharaohs. But China is different, although the emperors of the feudal dynasty are supreme, they are also subject to many constraints, for example, Xunzi compared the people to "water" and said that "water can carry boats, but also can overturn boats", the Song Dynasty established a policy of "ruling the world with scholars", the royal power will not only be restricted by the people, but also by the courtiers, so the ruler's behavior will naturally be greatly constrained.
Finally, the main purpose of this marriage, in order to maintain the purity of the bloodline, is to preserve the mystery and authority of the royal power. The pharaohs of ancient Egypt can be said to be the spokesmen of the gods in the human world, and they need to rely on such marriage relationships to maintain the so-called bloodline and divinity; and in China, it is said that since the collapse of Zhou Zili, Zhou Tianzi gradually lost his majesty, and the "sons of heaven" were all played by the nobles in the Spring and Autumn And Warring States periods as decorations, and the authority of the so-called "sons of gods" and "ming speakers of the gods" had long been lost, and in the Qin Dynasty, Chen Sheng Wu Guang shouted out the sentence "The prince will have a kind of Xiangning". As a result, China's royal family has lost the mystery of "divine right of kings", and if a dynasty wants to maintain its own rule, it must rely on force to maintain its own prestige, that is to say, the royal family does not have the so-called "divinity", since there is no divinity, then naturally there is no need to rely on marriage to maintain the divinity of the act.
Conclusion
Although the pharaohs of ancient Egypt maintained their so-called "divinity" and authority by marrying close relatives, they also caused frequent genetic diseases, such as according to archaeological restorations, Pharaoh Tutankhamun was a physically deformed person, and his father Wool was also very strange. It is understood that because the Japanese imperial family has always pursued the marriage of close relatives, there are also many descendants with physical deformities.